Doctor Who spin-offs

Since its beginning in 1963, Doctor Who has spawned a number of spin-offs that do not feature the Doctor as the main character. These can be separated into two distinct categories: productions officially licensed by the BBC, and other productions that contain a monster or element of Doctor Who licensed from the original holder without BBC involvement.

Officially licensed by the BBC

Television

K9 and Company

Main article: K9 and Company

Torchwood

Main article: Torchwood (TV series)

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Main article: The Sarah Jane Adventures

Class

Main article: Class (TV series)

Prose

Souvenir Press Ltd

• "Dalek books"

World Distributors Ltd

• "Dalek annuals"

Target Books

• The Companions of Doctor Who

BBC Books

• The Legends of Ashildr
• The Legends of River Song
• The Missy Chronicles

Panini Comics

• The Paternoster Gang Investigates

Audio

Silver Fist/Who Dares

• The ArcHive Tapes

Big Finish

Main article: Big Finish Doctor Who audio spin-offs

Comics

Marvel UK

Main article: DWM backup comic stories

• The Cybermen

Officially licensed from individual copyright holders

Beginning in 1987 with the release of Wartime by Reeltime Pictures, a number of professionally produced spin-off films and audio dramas have been produced. As noted above, these differ from BBC and Big Finish productions in that they usually only feature characters or monsters not owned by the BBC, but rather licensed from their creators. Some spin-offs are original works using original character strongly suggested by characters in Doctor Who (such as The Stranger). In many cases, original cast members from Doctor Who reprised their TV roles for these films and several involved behind-the-scenes veterans of the series (for example, Christopher Barry, who co-directed the very first Daleks story in 1963-64, directed Downtime).

A number of writers and actors involved in these productions later went on to work with BBC licensed Doctor Who spinoffs such as the Big Finish Productions audio dramas, and even on the revived Doctor Who series itself when it returned to TV in 2005 (most notably Nicholas Briggs and Mark Gatiss). By way of comparison, these spin-off productions, often classified as fan films, are in spirit similar to the professionally made fan films based upon the Star Trek franchise that began to emerge in the early 2000s when the rights holders for Star Trek relaxed their restrictions. However, unlike the Star Trek fan films, all of the productions listed below were fully licensed.

Television

Metal Mutt Productions

• K9

Video

Reeltime Pictures

• Wartime
• Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
• Downtime
• Mindgame Saga
• Dæmos Rising
• White Witch of Devil's End
• Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor

BBV Productions

• Auton Trilogy
• P.R.O.B.E.
• Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough

Audio

BBV Productions

• Adventures in a Pocket Universe
• Zygon
• Krynoid
• Sontarans
• I (I Scream)
• The Rani (The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind)
• Wirrn
• The Faction Paradox Protocols
• Rutans (In 2 Minds)
• The Quality of Mercy

Magic Bullet Productions

• The True History of Faction Paradox
• Kaldor City

BBC Radio 4

• Imaginary Boys

Bafflegab Productions

• Vince Cosmos: Glam Rock Detective

Prose

Sparrow Books

• The Adventures of K9

Virgin Books

• The New Adventures (1997-99)

Mad Norwegian Press

• Faction Paradox (2002-06, 13)

Random Static

• Faction Paradox (2008)

Telos Publishing

• Time Hunter
• Telos novelisations
  • Olive Hawthorne and the Dæmons of Devil's End
  • Dæmos Rising
  • Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor

Big Finish Productions

• Iris Wildthyme (2005)
• Bernice Summerfield
• New Worlds
  • Wildthyme on Top
  • The Coming of the Queen
  • Project: Valhalla

Obverse Books

• Iris Wildthyme (2009-present)
• Faction Paradox (2013-present)
• Obverse Quarterly
  • Señor 105 & the Elements of Danger
  • The Casebook of the Manleigh Halt Irregulars
  • The Obverse Book of Detectives (The Unwoken Princess)
• The City of the Saved
• Obverse Sextet
  • The Mystic Menagerie of Iris Wildthyme
  • The Rise & Fall of Señor 105
  • The Immortal Seaton Begg
  • Hyponormalisation: A Faction Hollywood Production
  • Closing the Casebook
  • Vanishing Tales of the City

Candy Jar Books

• Lethbridge-Stewart
• The Lucy Wilson Mysteries

Thebes Publishing

• Erimem

Meteoric Books

• The Essential Book of K9

Arcbeatle Press

• P.R.O.B.E.
• Cwej: The Series

Snowbooks Ltd

• Iris Wildthyme (2011-13)
• Resurrection Engines
• Fellowship of Ink

Comics

TV Century 21

• The Dalek Chronicles

Marvel UK

• Free-Fall Warriors

Image Comics

• Faction Paradox

Graveyard Shift Comics

• The Forge

Comeuppance Comics

• Miranda

Meteoric Books

• The Essential Book of K9

Lucky Comics

• Devil's End: The Adventures of Olive Hawthorne

Telos Publishing

• Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor

Non-fiction spin-offs

BBC

Since the revival of the Doctor Who franchise in 2005, several ongoing non-fiction series have been commissioned to supplement the main programmes. All primarily featured behind-the-scenes documentary coverage of production, but some also served as the venue for the release of some new licensed Doctor Who fiction: Totally Doctor Who included a serialised form of the animated serial The Infinite Quest, and The Fan Show frequently included more-or-less developed humorous skits.

• Doctor Who Confidential (2005-11)
• Totally Doctor Who (2006-07)
• Torchwood Declassified (2006-11)
• Doctor Who Extra (2014-15)
• The Fan Show (2015-18)
• Inside Look (2017)
• Closer Look (2018)
• Access All Areas (2018-19)

Reeltime Pictures

• Myth Makers (1985-2016)

Mad Norwegian Press

• AHistory (2006-present)
• About Time (2006-present)

Obverse Books

• The Black Archive (2016-present)

Other

Devious

Devious is an incomplete privately made fan film notable for featuring Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor in his final known performance in the role. Audio of Pertwee was reused by Big Finish Productions for the audio drama Zagreus. In 2009, a 12-minute excerpt/trailer from the production, featuring the extant footage of Pertwee, and which cannot really be deemed a complete narrative in its own right, was released by BBC Video with the DVD release of The War Games.

Notwithstanding a few Reeltime-produced comedy skits included in previous DVD sets, this makes Devious to date the only fan/unofficial spin-off to actually be released by the BBC. It is not, however, by far, the only unlicensed spin-off project to have featured a DWU actor returning to their original part in an unauthorised context.

Non-DWU spin-offs

Some series feature characters and/or elements that originated in a Doctor Who universe story but do not pass this wiki's four little rules and as such are not considered valid; in some cases, their connection to Doctor Who is even so tenuous that they are not even covered on the Wiki at all.

BBC

• What's inside the Doctor Who LEGO set? (webcast; featuring Estelle)

BBV

• Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet? (video; featuring Autons, a Krynoid and a Sontaran)

Big Finish

• The Confessions of Dorian Gray (audio; featuring a version of Dorian Gray)
• Vienna (audio; featuring Vienna Salvatori)

Epic Comics

• The Sleeze Brothers (comics; featuring the Sleeze Brothers)

Obverse Books

• The Periodic Adventures of Señor 105 (prose; featuring Señor 105)

Radio Static

• The Minister of Chance (audio; featuring the Minister of Chance)

Snowbooks Ltd

• The Brenda and Effie Mysteries (2020+)